Are you up to date with all six of the big changes that happened in social media in the last two weeks? Know how they’ll directly affect your hotel or resort?

If you aren’t sure, don’t worry; we know it’s a lot to keep up with.

Let’s take a look at the most recent social media changes that are relevant to the hospitality industry and how they’ll affect you.

New Look & Features for Pages on Mobile

Facebook Pages are getting a new look, with recommendations taking center stage and being featured more prominently. There will also be new features that will make it easier for your guests to view menus, book reservations, or take other actions more easily than they can now.

There will also be new local browsing options, which allow users to look for local businesses and events near them. Facebook will include recommendations based on users’ preferences and histories, and ratings from other viewers will likely impact these recommendations heavily.

What This Means for Hotels & Resorts

Reviews are now called Recommendations. They are no longer a Star-Rated scale (1-5 Stars). The visitor can either Recommend or Not Recommend, with or without a comment. Recommendations are even more important than ever before because of their heightened visibility, so do what you can to get more reviews on Facebook directly. Consider prioritizing Facebook when asking users to leave reviews, placing it above Google or TripAdvisor if you’re lacking them on Facebook.

As the new booking features roll out, make sure that your Pages are optimized and utilizing them. The ability for guests to book reservations through your site or view your resort’s menu can make everything a little more convenient for them, resulting in increased bookings.

Facebook Releases Image-to-Video Ads

Facebook’s Creative Shop has released a new tool called “Create to Convert,” which allows advertisers to add motion and animation to two still images. You can make your logo, product, use cases, and benefits come to life by just uploading two still images, no animation experience required.

What This Means for Hotels & Resorts

If you’re on a budget and don’t want to shell out the big bucks to a video agency, or looking for a way to make your ads more compelling in a scalable way, this is a tool you’ll want to utilize. Use these image-to-video ads to showcase your gorgeous resort and everything you can do there, and watch the bookings come rolling in.

Facebook Starts Rolling Out Stories Ads

Facebook started testing Facebook Story Ads in May for select advertisers in the U.S., Mexico, and Brazil. These Ads are now slowly rolling out to more advertisers and will appear in the Ads Manager once you have access. These ads will consist of 5 to 15 second videos that resemble Instagram Story Ads, with “Click to Learn More” CTAs now available.

Image source: Ana G.

What This Means for Hotels & Resorts

Plenty of hotels and resorts have had great luck using Instagram Story Ads, and it will be interesting to see if Facebook’s counterpart works just as well. If more of your guests are on Facebook than on Instagram, this could open more doors for you.

Instagram Testing Recommended Posts

Instagram is currently testing recommended posts in users’ feeds. These posts will appear at the bottom of a user’s feed. The content will come from accounts that the user doesn’t already follow, but which Instagram thinks they’d like based on the accounts and content they interact with most frequently.

This feature is only in testing, but this could be a great new way to get more reach on Instagram. At this point, there’s no way to influence whether or not you appear in a recommendation aside from having strong engagement rates, but you can diversify the types of content you post (mixing it up with videos, unique topics, multi-image posts, and more) to increase the likelihood of creating content different guests like to see.

Pinterest Releases Maximum Width in Promoted Video

In May, Pinterest started testing maximum width for their Promoted Video Pins, and it’s now available for all advertisers. These new pins are 4x wider than the standard pin, taking up the full range of space in Pinterest’s mobile two-column feed and practically demanding user attention. This feature can be found in the Pinterest Ads manager.

Promoted Video Pins are already a great way to stand out on mobile, and this new maximum width feature is a big opportunity. Videos of your gorgeous hotel and all the activities that can be done there will be even more powerful at a larger size. Several case studies from Pinterest’s initial tests have found that these specific video pins have higher rates of engagement and ad awareness than even other types of promoted pins.

Not sure where to start? You can always run retargeting campaigns based on website traffic, and utilize those extra-big videos to increase bookings with potential guests.